


emancipation beyond the bare bone (liberation of spirit and soul)

by sagansjagger



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cemetery, F/M, Identity Reveal, Macabre, Sad with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagansjagger/pseuds/sagansjagger
Summary: The plan was simple: marry Adrien and get him emancipated.But Marinette didn't know how she was going to tell Chat.She doesn't get the chance.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 22
Kudos: 188
Collections: Miraculous Fanworks Anniversary 2020





	emancipation beyond the bare bone (liberation of spirit and soul)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InkyCoffee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyCoffee/gifts).



> This was a prompt fic for Lou on the Miraculous Fanworks Discord Server anniversary giveaway! People submitted prompts and a group of writers spent time fulfilling them. I filled 7/5, haha!
> 
> Happy anniversary, Lou!

"I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

As the mayor declared her married to Adrien Agreste, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was finally able to breathe. She opened her eyes, looking at her sixteen-year-old husband. He stared back at her, his teary eyes filled with such naked gratitude that her stomach bottomed out with anxiety.

They’d done it. They’d emancipated him.

She and Adrien had anxiously awaited their marriage license for ten days, paying the ninety-five pound fee. Marinette had tried to tell Chat the plan, but she could never get a hold of him. He didn’t show up for patrol and he never answered his baton, which drove her to a near-panic. She hadn’t seen him for ten days. 

Ten harrowing days in which Gabriel could have tracked down his son. 

And now they were married, and Gabriel couldn’t touch him anymore.

She did not expect Adrien to launch himself at her, wrapping her up in a hug that squeezed the air out of her. “Thank you, Marinette!” he cried, hunching over to rest his cheek on hers. 

Marinette clung to him tightly, her face wet with his tears and hers where their cheeks were pressed together.

“Ah, young love!” Mayor Bourgeois exclaimed, and the two teens started. “So very romantic; I’m just thrilled for you both.”

Adrien pulled away from Marinette, giving her an uneasy smile. Rather than smiling back, she took his hands in hers. “It’s okay,” she whispered for his ears only. “You don’t have to… to love me. You’re free from him now, and that’s what matters.”

Adrien nodded, sniffling twice. “I don’t expect you to love me, but--”

“Here they are!” Tom declared, rolling out the wedding cake. Her father had insisted upon baking a croquembouche, a tower of vanilla-creme filled pastry puffs held together with spun sugar. As the two newlyweds ate the cake together that evening along with their friends, Marinette’s mind buzzed, and not from the champagne.

_Where is Chat? How am I going to tell him I’m married?_

She sat next to Adrien at a long table her parents had pulled into the bakery proper, being toasted by Nino and Alya. Marinette desperately tried to focus on the toasts--which were less about a long marriage and more about Adrien being emancipated from the man who’d abused him--but she just couldn’t manage more than a tight smile. 

_Chat… is still in love with Ladybug,_ Marinette thought, taking a sip of her bubbly drink. _This is going to crush him._

Luka was next. She raised her glass at his kind words and resisted the urge to bite her nails in public. _I could just… not tell him?_ she thought and then chastised herself. _How could I think that? That’s totally unfair to my partner._

Adrien interrupted her thoughts with a gentle hand on her arm. “Are you okay, Marinette?” 

Everyone’s attention was instantly on her. Kagami looked especially concerned, her amber eyes fixed on Marinette’s blue ones. 

“Oh!” Marinette gasped, waving a hand. “No, no, I’m fine! Adrien’s emancipation is worth celebrating.” She gulped. “Please, continue.” 

_I have to get out of here. I have to transform and call him. He has to answer. He has to! I can’t stand not knowing where he is._

Adrien frowned deeply, twisting his fluted glass in his hands. “I know this isn’t the wedding that you wanted, Marinette, and I’m sorry.” When he raised his wounded gaze to Marinette, her heart thudded painfully behind her breastbone. “I’ll… I can try to make it up to you, but I don’t… I don’t know how.”

“Adrien,” Marinette rasped, her eyes welling with tears again. She dashed them away, incensed with herself. “That’s not what I’m worried about right now.”

Adrien gave her a searching look, but Sabine intervened. She leaned forward from her place across the table and murmured, “You look pale, sweetling. Would you like to lie down?”

“This must be a lot to take in for you,” Kagami said as directly as ever. 

“Yeah, M,” Alya added. “You look like death warmed over.”

 _Finally,_ Marinette thought, her air leaving her lungs in a whoosh. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath. Nodding, she stood from the table. “Lying down sounds like a great idea, thanks. But don’t stop the party on my account. Like I said, Adrien’s emancipation is worth celebrating.”

She took one measured, focused stride behind Adrien’s chair towards the stairs. But as she passed, Adrien caught her sleeve. “Marinette, I…” 

_What?_ Marinette thought, feeling like she was being torn in two. On the one hand, she wanted to be there for Adrien. On the other, she needed to tell Chat what had happened.

And if she was being truly honest, she wanted her partner. They’d grown close over the past year, with Ladybug depending on Chat more and more to be her rock, her anchor. She adored Adrien, but she’d fallen--and fallen hard--for Chat, too.

And now she was married.

“Let her go, son,” Tom said gently, reaching across the table to pat Adrien’s shoulder. “She’s tired. She’s had a long day.”

Adrien sighed and released her. “Okay.”

Marinette forced herself to walk slowly and evenly across the room. She gave Adrien one last, apologetic smile, and shut the door behind her. 

Then she bolted up to her room. 

The trapdoor banged open and she leapt through it, skipping the last step. She opened her purse. “Tikki--”

“Marinette,” Tikki interrupted, holding up a flipper. “You’re panicked for no reason.”

“But--” Marinette started, but cut herself off when she saw Tikki’s chest expanding with air. Knowing she was being counseled to take a deep breath, Marinette slowed her pace and inhaled deeply with her kwami. 

Marinette held the breath for five seconds and then released it through her mouth. “Why should I not be panicking?”

“You’re going to be married to Adrien until you’re eighteen,” Tikki murmured, and Marinette flinched. The kwami floated out of her purse to hover in front of her face. “Remember what we talked about before? You have time to tell Chat. Slow down and figure out _what_ you’re going to tell him before you call him.”

 _What_ do _I want to say?_ Marinette wondered, pacing through the room with her fists clenched at her sides. “I want… to tell him that I can’t return his affections. That I’m no longer available for him. That he has to stop f-flirting with me.”

And now her face was hot and wet again. Tikki nuzzled her cheek. “I know you love Chat, Marinette. But Adrien needed you, and you stepped up for him.” Tikki hovered in front of her, looking deeply into her eyes. “Would you marry Adrien again if he needed you?”

“In a heartbeat,” Marinette snapped and then winced. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be angry with you, I’m just… Adrien’s situation was out of control. You’ve seen how skinny he is! And those bruises and how _intentional_ they were. How tightly controlled.”

“He had physical protection as long as his body being pristine was valuable to Gabriel. But once Adrien quit modeling…”

“Exactly,” Marinette seethed, setting her jaw. “I _had_ to help him.”

“And you did,” Tikki soothed, kissing Marinette’s nose. “Chat will understand.”

Marinette sniffed. "Yeah. Yeah, he will. He has to pick up. He has to! Tikki…"

Tikki smiled at her chosen. "Just say the words." 

"Spots on!"

The transformation light flashed over Marinette's body, leaving her clad in her snug, scarlet supersuit. She bounded up the stairs to her bed and opened her skylight, just in time to hear someone scream.

Ladybug climbed up to her balcony, yo-yo at the ready, and launched herself onto a nearby roof. She ducked behind a chimney to survey the scene.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir, give me your miraculous!" a purple-suited akuma demanded in the middle of the street. He hadn’t spotted her yet, or so it seemed. The akuma faced the Place de Vosges and clapped his massive hands, creating a shock wave that targeted the carousel. 

It exploded in a fiery shower of metal and plastic shrapnel. Ladybug bit back a gasp.

Someone landed on the roof behind her. She whirled to face the new threat, bandalore already spinning into a shield, and was by turns shocked and relieved to see Chat. “Chat!” she whisper-shouted. “Oh, thank goodness you're here! But this akuma is dangerous. We should--”

An explosion rocked the bakery behind her, knocking her to her knees. Ladybug whipped her head around, scrambling to her feet. The bakery proper was unscathed, but the top floor was left in ashes. Marinette's parents and friends flooded out the doors and started taking cover behind cars and in nearby buildings.

As they were fleeing the building on fire, Ladybug did a headcount. _Maman, Papa, Luka, Kagami, Alya, Nino… Where’s Adrien?_ Her breath caught painfully in her throat. _Adrien!_

Chat Noir screamed, his face deathly pale. “My Lady! My _wife_ was in there!”

Chills spilled down Ladybug’s back. She sucked a cold breath over her teeth. “Your _wife_? What?”

Chat dropped to his knees, an inhuman howl leaving his lips. He’d thrown his head back, his eyes tightly screwed shut. His hands clutched his cheeks.

“Chat!” Ladybug cried. At the same time, the akuma called out, “There you are!”

Fearing that the akuma was going to hurt Chat, Ladybug scooped the bawling teenager up and unceremoniously threw him over her shoulder. The chimney exploded behind her just as she dove off the roof. 

Ladybug had never moved faster in her life. She flung her yo-yo out over and over, putting as much distance between the akuma and Chat as possible. Explosions sounded behind her, the noises quickly becoming more and more distant as she fled the scene.

Riding on her shoulder, Chat had been reduced to incoherent groaning. She’d apparently knocked the breath out of him and he hadn’t bothered to recover it. He’d covered his face with his clawed hands, tears leaking out from his fingers.

By the time Ladybug had reached the 4th arrondissement and landed behind a gargoyle on the Notre Dame cathedral, Chat had stopped sobbing. She set him down against a wall, and he stared up at her with a hollow, sunken expression. 

“She’s gone,” he rasped, shaking his head. “Oh, Marinette…” 

Ladybug’s breathing hitched. Chat was, without a doubt, her husband. 

_Adrien._

Ladybug hadn’t had time to process his identity before this while fleeing, but now the quantum masking fell away and revealed him to her eyes. His hair, his forest green eyes, his height and skinniness and the way he consumed food as if it were going to run away from him--everything about Chat Noir screamed Adrien Agreste.

Adrien. Chat. Her love and… and her husband.

No wonder he'd gone missing for ten days.

Ladybug knelt in front of him, biting her lip. She set a hand on his shoulder. “Chat… Marinette is safe.”

A gasp ripped from his throat. He sat up, almost bonking Ladybug’s nose with his forehead in his excitement. “She is? How? Did you save her?”

“I…” 

“Ladybug, _please_ ,” Chat begged, taking her hand in both of his. “Please tell me she’s safe. I love her.”

Ladybug’s stomach bottomed out again. _You… love me?_ Chat--Adrien--was staring up at her with such an earnest, pleading look that she didn’t dare doubt him. 

“Oh, Chat!” She threw her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his.

His hands came up to rest on her shoulder blades, tentatively at first, and then digging into them as he clung to her. “Ladybug… Is she safe?”

“It’s me, Chat,” she whispered into his ear, pressing a kiss to it. “I’m your wife.”

Chat tugged on her shoulders, pulling her back so he could look into her face. He cupped her cheeks in trembling hands, his effervescent, green eyes searching hers. “M-Marinette?”

“Adrien?” Tears stung Ladybug’s eyes. “Did you mean what you said?” She gulped. “Do you love me?”

Adrien didn’t answer in words. He slammed his mouth on hers, greedily devouring her. Marinette gasped against him, parting her lips to his probing tongue. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer.

Abruptly, Ladybug broke the kiss. “Chat, the akuma--”

“Yes,” Chat affirmed, his eyes sharp and fierce. “He’s dangerous, so you’d better summon your Lucky Charm.”

Ladybug nodded and untangled herself from his grip. Chat pushed himself off the ground and stood as she cast the spell to summon her Lucky Charm: a pair of gigantic oven mitts. “Chat, I need your--”

“Belt,” Chat responded, already untangling it from his waist. “Gotcha covered, my Lady.”

Using Chat’s belt, Ladybug quickly tied the two oven mitts together into a makeshift pair of handcuffs. “Okay, Kitty,” Ladybug declared, grinning. “It’s you and me--”

“Against the world.” Chat’s eyes were soft and his smile was even softer, threatening to undo her. 

Ladybug stroked his cheek with a gloved hand. “We’ll talk after. Deal?”

“Deal.”

***

Tracking down the akuma was easy. He’d caused massive amounts of damage to the buildings of the 21st arrondissement. Marinette was terrified that her parents might have ended up in the rubble, and wondered desperately if her Miraculous Cure would set everything to rights.

But she didn’t have time to worry about that now. Standing in the middle of the Père Lachaise Cemetery, surrounded by shattered tombstones, the akuma clapped his enormous hands at her, forcing her to dodge out of the way of his shock waves. 

Caskets had been unearthed and broken into pieces all over the cemetery, revealing their nauseating contents. Ladybug nearly retched at the smell. There were no buildings available for Ladybug to latch onto, nowhere to take cover behind the small amounts of rotten debris scattered about. 

Ladybug took a moment to reevaluate her strategy.

Fortunately for the two heroes, the akuma was huge and slow moving. _The bigger they come, the harder they fall._ He stood on two large graves, mocking the heroes. “Give me your miraculous or you’ll end up buried here!” 

“Do your thing, Kitty!” Ladybug called, going right while Chat went left. He rolled out of the way of a seismic wave _towards_ the akuma, and skidded under the akuma’s feet, calling for his Cataclysm on the way. 

Dragging his hand across the ground, Chat destroyed the mounds of dirt and grass, opening a gaping, skeleton-filled hole under the akuma. Screaming, the akuma sank into the earth.

While the akuma fell, Ladybug flipped over to him and slipped the oven mitts onto his hands, tightening Chat’s belt to trap them. She ripped off his watch--which looked so out of place on his purple bodysuit--and threw it to the ground, breaking it under her foot.

Purple bubbles swallowed the man up, leaving a very confused Parisian in their wake. “Ladybug? Chat Noir? What happened?” He looked around and then shrieked. “Why are we in a graveyard?”

Ladybug wasted no time. She captured the butterfly and purified it, not even bothering to bid it goodbye as she released the little, white creature. Then she retrieved the oven mitts and threw them into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

“Pound it!” Chat said along with her, bumping his fist to hers once the city was repaired and she could breathe again. 

Ladybug approached the victim. “Are you okay, sir?”

The victim’s hands trembled. “Was I akumatized?”

“You were, and I’m sorry,” Ladybug confirmed, patting the man’s shoulder. “Chat and I need to go. Can you get home on your own?”

The man nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be okay.”

Ladybug smiled grimly as Chat Noir took her hand. “Good.” 

***

Convincing her parents that Ladybug and Chat Noir had saved both Adrien and Marinette from the bakery explosion wasn’t too difficult. Both teenagers were given a talking to about running _away_ from dangerous akumas rather than towards them.

Not for the first time, Marientte wondered if her parents--her mother at the very least--knew her identity. 

But this wasn’t the time to worry about that.

She stood with Adrien in the living room of his apartment. Their apartment, now, though the initial arrangement was for her to remain with her parents while he lived alone. They were married, but they hadn’t planned on acting as a married couple.

Marinette assumed that that had changed when he’d told her he loved her.

“What do we do now?” Adrien whispered, his thumbs stroking the backs of her knuckles. “I can’t live without you. I hate that you run headlong into danger every day."

Marinette drew a breath through her nose. “Do you trust me, Adrien?”

“With my life.”

“Good,” Marinette whispered, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Because I trust you with mine.” 

She extricated her hand from his loose grip, only to smooth his bangs away from his eyes. “We have to keep fighting. We can’t allow Hawkmoth to win. And you will protect me.” Her eyes filled with tears again unbidden. “Won’t you, Chat?”

Adrien straightened his shoulders. The look in his eyes was fierce and resolute. “Yes, I will. Always.”

Marinette tucked her arms under his armpits, clinging to his back. He placed his hands on her waist. “Then we’ll keep fighting,” she affirmed, nodding. “And… your father can’t touch you anymore, Adrien. You’ve been emancipated. You’re free.”

“I don’t know what I want to do with my life,” Adrien admitted, wilting. 

She shook her head. “You don’t have to figure out a direction right away. You’re sixteen. You’ve got years and years ahead of you to plan your life out.”

Adrien released her, pulling back. The air was cold where he’d left, and Marinette’s heart twisted in her chest. Was he rejecting her?

Then he took her hand into his and pressed a slow, lingering kiss on her wrist. Marinette’s cheeks bloomed like a peony. “You’re right. I’ll figure it out. And,” Adrien murmured, “you’ll be with me?”

Marinette’s eyes softened. This was the boy she loved. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but by his side. “You and me against the world. Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let's all give a resounding welcome to my beta for this piece, [MissNoodles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missnoodles/pseuds/Missnoodles/works?fandom_id=582724)! Noodles is a dear friend of mine who is a fantastic writer in her own right. If you're looking for a beautiful fic which turns a salt premise on its head and transforms it into sugar, then look no further than [our hands would not be taught to hold another's](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25014856/chapters/60572590). This fic has gorgeous characterization and some headcanons that I've taken as my own for the lovesquare. And it has hands. Lots and lots of hands.
> 
> Check out Noodles' work today!
> 
> \---
> 
> Are you interested in reading or writing fanfiction? Are you looking for a community of like-minded and supportive people? Then join the [Miraculous Fanworks](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) Discord server! 
> 
> We are always welcoming new members, and would love to see you. We offer a variety of conversations, from fic discussions to writing support to fanfiction prompts. We even have monthly server-wide events and group writing projects! 
> 
> Come join today!


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